I love Italy. My wife, Any, and I have visited five times. We’ve even attended two weddings there. Well, we were only invited to one of them, our Italian daughter, Michi’s wedding. I’ll tell you about that some other time. We’ve made great friends in Milan.
It’s such a fabulous place to visit.
To do Italy’s wines justice, we’d have to spend months and months on them. Covering only one wine region in one month is already a stretch. So, this month we’ll be focusing on Italy’s Tuscan region. It is rich with wines made from their native Sangiovese grapes. We’ll cover a few others from that area too, but let’s not overextend ourselves.
Now you might be asking yourself, “Why or how did Jorge become so Italian? He’s a Cuban living in Miami. What’s the connection?”
Great question.
My second daughter Gabriela studied a semester in Bologna, Italy. It’s the food capital of Italy! So Any, older sister Monica and Sofia planned a visit with Gabriela during Thanksgiving.
What a super first trip there? You can even read “Sofi’s Tamborini Story” to read about where it all started. She explains how we found the place and her personal experience there. Be aware that this is the spot where our love for wine started and that led to this here Casual Winers with Italy as our first featured region
Our second Italian wine connection came through Michela Bandera, or Michi (pronounced “Mickey” like the mouse.) She lived with us several months while she was teaching Italian at a local Miami high school, and has now become our Italian daughter.
Sofia herself studied in Bologna too, following in her big sister’s footsteps. In her “Sofi’s Tamborini Story,” she also shares her wine exploring experiences as a college student. She had to learn to drink and continued to discover Italian wines all on a student budget. She still enjoying and discovered some of Italy’s super finds because of that budget.
I’ve got a special affair going with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. (Yes, my wife knows.) I discovered her at my favorite local restaurant. I’m going to be visiting with that restaurant owner in the New Year and learn how And why he selected It as their house wine. I find it’s incredible.
That discovery led to our visiting Montepulciano d’Abruzzo in Italy and our visit with the winemaker of a Super Tuscan we’ve enjoyed. We’ll also be sharing with you our visit (and lots of pictures) of their wine cellar/caves. An intriguing and really creepy place where they filmed a few of the Twilight move werewolf/vampire chase scenes.
There will be much more covering the famous Chianti’s from the Chianti region.
Lot’s more to come.